Christ’s Love is in Perpetual Bloom
God will not fail in His love for His people, regardless of how often they seem to forget Him.
- John Snyder, Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty
Henry Law (1797-1884) was Dean of Gloucester in the 19th Century and a member of the Church of England’s Evangelical party. Today, Law is best known as an author of multiple works on books of the Old Testament, including Christ is All, a five-part work on the images of Christ and the Gospel in the Pentateuch.
Every believer may come to the Old Testament alongside Henry Law, to explore and admire the implications of the words of Christ in the Gospel of Luke,
Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures…Now He said to them,“These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Luke 24:27, 44
In Gospel in Exodus, a work on the pictures of Christ and the gospel in the book of Exodus, Law rejoices in the power and love and Christ and writes,
[Christ’s] love is in perpetual bloom.
The unchangeableness of Jesus is the unchangeableness of His attributes. Each shines brightly in this bright mirror. But a rapid glance at His love and power must suffice. His love is in perpetual bloom. It is always in summertime. The roots are deeply buried in Himself; therefore the branches cannot fade. Believer, drink hourly of this cup of joy. Do not allow Satan to infuse a poisonous doubt. Christ loved you fully when, in the councils of eternity, He received you into His heart. He loved you truly when, in the fullness of time, He took upon Himself your curse, and drained your hell-deep dues. He loved you tenderly when He showed you, by the Spirit, His hands and His feet, and whispered to you that you were His. He loves you faithfully while He ceases not to intercede in your behalf, and to scatter blessings on your person and your soul. He will love you intensely in heaven when you are manifested as His precious purchase and crowned as His bride! To each enquiry—has He loved? does He love? and will He love?—the one reply is, 'I AM THAT I AM.' Do not raise the objection, if He thus loves, why am I thus? why is my path so rugged, and my heart like flint? You will soon know that your bitterest trials and your sorest pains are sure tokens of His love. The father corrects because he loves. In attentive care the physician deeply probes the wounds.
Power goes hand in hand with love. They co-exist and co-endure.
Thus Jesus makes earth hard, that you may long for heaven's holy rest. He shows you your self-vileness that you may prize His cleansing blood. He allows you to stumble that you may cleave more closely to His side. He makes the world a blank that you may seek all comfort in Himself. If He seems to change, it is that you may change. He hides His face, that you may look for Him. He is silent, that you may cry more loudly. His desertion prevents your desertion. He saves from real hell, by casting into seeming hell. But love fails not. All His dealings are its ever flowing, overflowing tide. On each the eye of faith can read, 'I AM THAT I AM.' Power goes hand in hand with love. They co-exist and co-endure. It was a mighty voice which said, 'Be'—and all things were. It was a mighty hand which framed this so wondrous universe. It is a mighty arm which turns the wheel of providence. This power still is, and ever will be, what it always has been. No age enfeebles, and no use exhausts it. This is the Church's rock. The Bible, blazing with its exploits, encourages the 'worm Jacob' to 'be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.' He can still bid the seas of difficulty to recede. He can cause hurricanes and tempests to cease. He can make straight, the crooked paths of evil. He can level the mountains of high-towering corruption. He can stop the lion-mouth of persecution. He can quench the scorching flames of every lust. In the face of all Goliaths, He cheers His followers to victory, under the banner of 'I AM THAT I AM.' Reader! these thoughts scarcely touch the boundary line of the shadow of this glorious name. But surely they show the blessedness of those who, guided by the Spirit, repose beneath the wings of Jesus.
Believer, the eternity and unchangeableness of 'I AM THAT I AM' makes heaven to be heaven forever. Sinner, the eternity and unchangeableness of 'I AM THAT I AM' makes hell to be hell forever.
'The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.' 'I AM THAT I AM' must perish or must change,before their names can be cast from His heart. Some greater power must arise, before they can be plucked from His tightgrasping hand. The bare idea is folly. Happy flock! 'I AM THAT I AM' loves them, and they are loved—calls them, and they follow Him—sanctifies them, and they are sanctified—blesses them, and they are blessed—gives them life, and they live—gives them glory, and they are glorified. But perhaps it is your wretched case to live unsprinkled by His saving blood. Will you die thus? What! thus appear before His great white throne? His truth condemns you—and it cannot change. His wrath burns hotly against you—and it cannot relent. His power has commission to destroy you—and it cannot be withstood. 'I AM THAT I AM' becomes an idle fable, if truth and wrath and power war not eternally with sin. And can they war and not prevail? Believer, the eternity and unchangeableness of 'I AM THAT I AM' makes heaven to be heaven forever. Sinner, the eternity and unchangeableness of 'I AM THAT I AM' makes hell to be hell forever.